Bryan Cranston Writes Tell All Book: ‘I Was Capable Of Taking A Life’

Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston is opening up about his life in a new memoir that seeks to lay out everything from Cranston’s big acting break to the stalker ex-girlfriend who nearly drove him to murder. A Life in Parts, the book penned by Bryan, is due out in bookstores on Tuesday, but, preceding that release, excerpts reveal startling details about Cranston’s past. For one who has always been considered one of Hollywood’s nicest guys, the Breaking Bad star dishes on a dark past that might have led him in a different direction, had fate not given Cranston a break.

The Crazed Ex-Girlfriend That Nearly Drove Bryan Cranston To Murder

As is the case with a new love, People reveals that Cranston connected with Ava emotionally and physically, with an attraction that culminated in a “sexual marathon” that threatened to consume them both. Bryan describes long weekends with Ava that left him feeling like an alcoholic indulging in a weekend bender, but the passion shared between Cranston and his new love soon found other outlets. The Breaking Bad actor says their arguments soon became as tempestuous as their love making, with one blowout leading to Bryan and Ava getting kicked out of a restaurant.

Ava had problems of her own as well. Cranston says Ava had a problem with drug use and that her addiction was bad enough that he ended up rushing her to a hospital on one occasion. The incident resulted in Cranston’s girlfriend getting her stomach pumped.

When things grew too much to bear, Bryan tried to break things off, but he says Ava wasn’t giving up that easily. Thinking he was free, the Breaking Bad star moved to Manhattan to pursue his acting ambitions, only for Cranston to find out that Ava had followed him. She attempted to get past security to get closer to Bryan, left him death threats on his voicemail, and eventually showed up at his home.

Cranston says the harassment grew so infuriating that he had visions of himself in which he “slammed her head against the brick wall” until she was dead. Fortunately, the police had arrived to arrest Ava, whose last name remains unrevealed, before things could spin quite that far out of control.

“I understood clearly, without question, that I was capable of taking a life,” writes Cranston. “I think that’s true of all of us.”

One Breaking Bad Scene Brought Bryan Cranston To His Knees In Grief

Bryan Cranston’s A Life in Parts may be one of the most fascinating memoirs to hit the shelves in recent memory, but only because it stems from the dark, often embittered life of the man who lived it. While Cranston discusses events like being abandoned by his parents and losing his virginity to an Austrian prostitute, CBS News touches upon what is perhaps one of the most poignant moments in Bryan’s life.

One section of A Life in Parts details how a Breaking Bad scene reconnected Cranston with memories of his daughter, forcing him to relive that grief anew.

“Walter White is going through a myriad of emotions. ‘Should I save her? She’s a young girl. I have a son this age.’ And as I’m diving into the emotion of it, all of a sudden, instead of the actress, Krysten Ritter, I see the face of my daughter dying, choking to death,” recalls Bryan Cranston. “And it just – even now, when I recall that story and that time, it’s a little upsetting because – for obvious reasons.”

Breaking Bad‘s Cranston says he was so overcome with grief, remorse, and sadness that he broke down into tears right in the middle of the scene.

“Everything that an actor is in their experiences and their upbringing, becomes part of the tool box for an actor, being able to access the emotions that they carry,” explains Mr. Cranston. “And so our job is then to just be open to reaching and pulling it out, and unfortunately sometimes, it’s painful.”

A Life in Parts is perhaps Bryan Cranston’s greatest achievement in that it is more honest than any performance he has ever offered on stage or on screen. Still, the memoir offers an unnerving look at the parallels between Breaking Bad‘s Walter White and the actor who so brilliantly portrayed him. For fans of Breaking Bad, there can be no greater gift than A Life in Parts.

“I was murderous and I was capable of great love. I was victim, moored by my circumstances, and I was the danger,” writes Bryan Cranston. “I was Walter White. But I was never more myself.”

[Featured Image by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]